The most important point here is to realize that a Press Release is neither an Ad nor even an Advertorial.

The 5 parts of a PR:

Headline: Grab attention and force people to read

Subhead: Short intro to expand the Headline

Lead Paragraph: Tell the major facts of the story. This paragraph should include who, what, when, where and how.

Remaining paragraphs: Briefly give more details about the story.

End: Should include a little information about the business owner and his business. Only info, no hype!

This structure is sometimes called the ‘inverted pyramid’, because the most important information must come first (on top).

IMPORTANT: Statistics help validate a story (you can get them from a variety of places, including Google searches, trade associations, research papers, and the U.S. Census Bureau at http://www.census.gov/)

News Release example

Now take a look at the following News Release to illustrate the points above. It conforms to all good News Release requirements (except statistics, which is not really a requirement). With this simple News Release, Valerie Chen got literally dozens of leads who can easily become clients.

For SMBs, cultural flexibility is the key to swift and everlasting success on the China marketplace

Chinese American translator, Valerie Chen has just launched a website where she showcases her deep and vast knowledge of Chinese culture. The new website (http://www.wheninchina.com) targets Small and Midsize Businesses which seem to find it a daunting task to do business in China.

Ms Chen seems to have a soft spot for SMBs. Huge companies tend to rely too much on their financial clout. They don’t seem to realize there are things money can’t buy, even in China and however “business-minded” the Chinese may be.

“Freelance translators and SMBs, especially those where you can ‘walk straight to the Boss and talk to him or her’ are cast in the same mould, and there is every reason why they should get along fine”

On the site, it is possible to listen to Chinese music, a Chinese poetry recital (There is a written translation of the lyrics), learn a lot about Chinese culture, including a bit of Mandarin Chinese language (“Not too much, though”, quips Ms Chen “otherwise you won’t need my translation or interpreting services!”)

All the Mp3’s are downloadable

There is also a “serious” side to the website: is chock-full of information on the Chinese economy, investment opportunities, legal and institutional environment, etc.

WHY: Because SMBs seem to find it a daunting task to do business in China

HOW: She does it by showcasing her deep and vast knowledge of Chinese culture

4. REMAINING PARAGRAPHS: Briefly give more details about the story

5. END: Includes a little information about the business owner and her business. Only info, no hype!

This is an example that is easily reproducible by any translator and/or interpreter, with any language combination

Try to copy it and adapt it to your own case. With all the knowledge you’ve acquired in this chapter, that should be child play, don’t you think?

P.S. Many of you have tried to sign up for our Free 7-Part PR ecourse, but the link had some problems. We are very sorry. But we’ve fixed everything: we’ve turned the ecourse into a free downloadable PDF and all you have to do is visit this link and instantly download it!

A.M.Sall

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